SEM-EDS analysis and discrimination of forensic soil

Soils vary among different areas, and have some characteristics because of the natural effects and transfers made by human and other living beings in time. So that forensic examination of soil is not only concerned with the analysis of naturally occurring rocks, minerals, vegetation, and animal matter. It also includes the detection of such manufactured materials such as ions from synthetic fertilizers and from different environments (e.g., nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate) as environmental artifacts (e.g., lead or objects as glass, paint chips, asphalt, brick fragments, and cinders) whose presence may impart soil with characteristics that will make it unique to a particular location. Many screening and analytical methods have been applied for determining the characteristics which differentiate and discriminate the forensic soil samples but none of them easily standardized. Some of the methods that applied in forensic laboratories in forensic soil discrimination are the color comparison of the normal air-dried (dehumidified) and overheated soil samples, macroscopic observation, and low-power stereo-microscopic observation, determination of anionic composition by capillary electrophoresis (CE), and the elemental composition by scanning electron microscope (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and other high sensitivity techniques. The objective of this study was to show the effect of the application of 9 tonnes/cm2 pressure on the elemental compositions obtained by SEM-EDS technique and comparing the discrimination power of the pressed-homogenized and not homogenized forensic soil samples. For this purpose soil samples from 17 different locations of Istanbul were collected. Aliquots of the well mixed samples were dried in an oven at 110-120 degrees C and sieved by using 0.5 mm sieve and then the undersieve fraction(<0.5 mm) of these samples put on an adhesive tape placed on a stub. About 100-150 mg aliquots of dried, sieved samples were pressed under 9 tonnes/cm2 pressure by KBr disk preparation apparatus of an infrared spectrophotometer. Surfaces of the randomized particles and the pressed disks of the soil samples were scanned and the elemental compositions were determined with scanning electron microscope JEO-JSM-5600 equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer OXFORD Link-ISIS-300. The samples from top of the sieves were examined with stereo-microscope equipped with JVC-TK-128DE color video camera and JVC-GV-PT2, digital video printer. Natural and artificial materials that have characteristic features were identified. Then for additional confirmation all soil samples were dried at 120 degrees C and over 780 degrees C and their colors compared. We concluded that pressing the whole sieved soil samples under 9 tonnes/cm2 pressure results in smashing over the harder particles into the softer matrix and results in homogenization of the soil sample. The elemental compositions of these samples obtained by SEM-EDS with 10-fold less standard deviation (S.D.) values and so that with more reproducibility and discrimination power.     

Brain amino acid abnormalities in kidney disease and diabetes mellitus

The present postmortem study examines whether specific amino acid abnormalities associated with renal diseases or diabetes mellitus in animal experiments and on clinical examination may also be found in human brain samples obtained at clinical autopsies. The material includes 12 deceased with renal insufficiency, 23 deceased with diabetes mellitus and 26 control cases with lethal cardiovascular diseases (without a history of hepatic, renal or metabolic disturbances). The autopsy and clinical records were retrospectively analyzed for age, sex, postmortem delay, cause of death, substantial preexisting diseases and histological findings. The analysis of free amino acid concentrations in human brain specimens was performed applying a Beckman amino acid analyzer. The results were evaluated using the U-test according to Mann, Willcox and Whitney. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered to be significantly different. Differences of amino acid concentrations attributable to sex, age and postmortem delay were not significant. The comparison of postmortem amino acid concentrations in the brains of patients with diabetes mellitus and controls did not reveal relevant changes. However, the patients with renal diseases, as compared to controls, showed a significant cerebral increase of urea, phenylethanolamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Thus, the postmortem amino acid analysis may contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of uremic encephalopathy and may supplement the conventional postmortem morphological diagnosis in kidney diseases by indication of functional impairment.     

The reactivity of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) in alcoholic solutions

In this work the stability of GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) in alcoholic media was studied. Under acidic conditions the GBL will react with ethanol or methanol to give the corresponding ethyl and methyl esters of GHB. It can be seen that ester formation is dependent on the type of alcohol, the alcohol content of the solution, and the pH of the solution. Under the same conditions it was shown that GHB does not give rise directly to the corresponding ester when merely in the presence of an alcohol; however the ester will be formed if the conditions are present for conversion of GHB to GBL followed by subsequent reaction with alcohol. In alcoholic beverage samples spiked with GBL the expected conversion to GHB occurred, and the formation of the ethyl ester of GHB was also seen in some samples. Wine samples were analyzed for the presence of the ethyl ester of GHB, and the effect of adding GHB/GBL to hot beverages was studied.     

Dublin Declaration on HIV/AIDS in prisons launched

On 23 February 2004, the Dublin Declaration on HIV/AIDS in Prisons in Europe and Central Asia was launched. The Declaration focuses on prisons in Europe and Central Asia, but it is also relevant for prisons in other countries, including Canada, which are still far from having adopted a comprehensive approach, based on public health and human rights principles, to HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C in prisons.     

“出卖”海岛的法律问题探析

“出卖”无居民海岛表明国家在海岛管理政策上的变化,但“出卖”海岛的实质是设定海岛利用权。同时,为了规范海岛利用权的运作,法律对海岛利用权的基本内容和主要规则作出明确规定是必须的。     

Indigenous voters and party system fragmentation in Latin America

This article shows that ethnic cleavages have contributed to electoral fragmentation in Latin America, but not in the way that the social cleavages literature would expect. It finds that party system fragmentation in the region is not correlated with ethnic diversity, but rather with the proportion of the population that is indigenous. The failure of the main parties to adequately represent indigenous people, it argues, has led indigenous voters to shift their support to a variety of smaller populist and leftist parties, which has produced high levels of party system fragmentation in indigenous areas. Where a significant indigenous party has emerged, however, indigenous voters have flocked to that party, which has reduced party system fragmentation. Analyses of sub-national electoral data from Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru provide support for these arguments.     

Politische Institutionen und die Entwicklung generalisierten Vertrauens. Ein internationaler Vergleich

Trust functions as an instrument for establishing long-term and mutually beneficial cooperative relationships. In this paper we investigate the sources of generalized trust. The main focus of the research is the role of the political-institutional context in allowing trust-based relationships to form, controlling for the attributes and motives of individual agents. The central contention of the paper is that political institutions that support norms of fairness, universality, and the division of power contribute to the formation of inter-personal trust. Using data from the World Values Survey we run multi-level models to test for links between differences between the responses of individuals in various countries and the trust-supporting context, in terms of different institutional configurations. Alongside individual resources and attitudes, aspects of social integration and other sociodemographic characteristics, we test for significant effects of contextual factors — such as the influence of formal rule-of-law institutions, social inequality, and the division of power or pluralistic democratic procedures. The study comes to the conclusion that universalistic, impartial and power-sharing institutions increase the prospects for the development of generalized trust.     

中小企业集群发展中的政府干预

中小企业集群很多都是自发形成的,但实践证明,地方政府在中小企业集群的形成中可以发挥较大作用。中小企业在发展中面临着许多自身无法克服的劣势与风险,因此,在集群的发展过程中,需要政府进行干预,即通过多种途径发挥其对集群的引导和扶持作用。     

Contests with an unknown number of contestants

This paper studies rent-seeking contests where the contestants do not know the number of actively competing contestants. Two models are compared. In the first, all players are risk neutral; in the second, all have constant absolute risk aversion. If the expected fraction of active contestants is low, an increase in the number of potential contestants increases individual rent-seeking efforts. This effect is in contrast to the complete information case where individual rent-seeking efforts decrease in the number of contestants. The effect is more likely under risk neutrality, but also possible under risk aversion. Equilibrium rent seeking efforts are lower under risk aversion if and only if the expected fraction of active contestants is low.